A clean, predictable directory structure is the foundation of a stable media ecosystem. Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and other automation tools all assume certain filesystem behaviors — and fighting those assumptions leads to broken imports, duplicate media, and long-term frustration.

This guide covers directory layout best practices only. File naming conventions, renaming rules, and application-specific settings are covered in their respective guides.

A well-designed media library structure should:

• Be unambiguous to both humans and automation tools
• Prevent media type overlap
• Scale cleanly as libraries grow
• Survive rebuilds of Plex or automation services
• Avoid brittle, one-off layouts

The goal is boring predictability. If you ever need to re-point Plex or rebuild the ARR stack, the filesystem should require zero rethinking.

Follow these rules universally:

• One media type per top-level directory
• One logical library per directory tree
• No mixed media types in the same path
• No temporary or in-progress data in final library paths
• Automation tools manage contents — not humans

Violating these rules almost always leads to:

• Misidentified media
• Incorrect imports
• Broken Plex metadata
• Difficult troubleshooting

At the highest level, media should be separated by type, not quality, codec, or source.

Example:

• /media/movies
• /media/tv
• /media/music

These paths should be treated as final destinations only. Nothing enters these directories unless it is ready to be consumed by Plex.

Movies should live in a flat but organized hierarchy.

Recommended structure:

• /media/movies/Movie Title (Year)/
  • Movie Title (Year).ext

Why this works well:

• Plex expects one movie per directory
• Radarr manages movies at the folder level
• Prevents subtitle and extra file collisions
• Makes manual inspection trivial

Avoid:

• Nesting by genre
• Nesting by resolution (4K, 1080p, etc.)
• Grouping multiple movies in a single directory

Quality and format decisions belong to automation profiles, not filesystem layout.

TV content is inherently hierarchical and should reflect that clearly.

Recommended structure:

• /media/tv/Show Name/
  • Season 01/
    • Episode files
  • Season 02/
    • Episode files

Why this works well:

• Plex relies on season-based hierarchy
• Sonarr expects one show per root folder
• Enables clean season upgrades and replacements
• Keeps specials and extras manageable

Notes:

• Season folders should always exist, even for single-season shows
• Specials should be handled using standard season conventions
• Avoid dumping episodes directly into the show root

Music libraries benefit from strict separation and consistency, especially when managed by automation tools.

Recommended structure:

• /media/music/Artist/
  • Album/
    • Track files

Why this works well:

• Plex Music expects Artist → Album hierarchy
• Lidarr manages artists and albums cleanly
• Preserves album-level metadata and artwork
• Avoids cross-artist collisions

Additional guidance:

• Multi-disc albums should live under the same album directory
• Compilations can be handled via artist naming rules
• Soundtracks should be treated as albums, not playlists

Never allow automation tools to download directly into final library paths.

Instead, maintain three conceptual zones:

• Download directory (temporary, incomplete)
• Staging/import directory (post-processing)
• Final media library (read-mostly)

Only the final library paths should be exposed to Plex. This separation ensures:

• Clean libraries
• Predictable imports
• Easy recovery from failed downloads
• No partial or corrupted media appearing in Plex

Ensure consistent permissions across all media paths.

Best practices:

• Plex and automation tools should have read/write access
• Avoid mixing ownership models
• Prefer group-based permissions
• Avoid per-file manual permission changes

If permissions require constant fixing, the structure is likely wrong upstream.

This page does not cover:

• File naming formats
• Episode numbering schemes
• Metadata agents
• Quality profiles
• Import and rename settings

Those topics are covered in:

• Sonarr configuration guide
• Radarr configuration guide
• Lidarr configuration guide
• Plex library configuration guide

Keeping these concerns separate prevents overlap and confusion.

A good media library structure should be:

• Obvious
• Boring
• Automation-friendly
• Easy to rebuild against

If your automation stack disappeared tomorrow, you should be able to:
1. Reinstall applications
2. Point them at the same directories
3. Resume operation without reorganization

If the filesystem gets out of the way, the ecosystem works as intended.